Xmen Revisited, chapter 8:Interlude 4
by Kindar
Summary: another sequence looking at a day in the life of the characters.
1. Chapter 1

Jean stood before the holding cell perplexed. She checked the schedule again to make sure she hadn't missed something; no, no one had schedule time with her patient right now.

So why wasn't Logan in his cell?

There were no signs he'd broken out; the force field was active there were no new claw marks on the walls, floor or ceiling.

So where was he?

She contacted the other doctors who were authorized to see him, but none of them knew where he was either. For a moment she considered sounding the alarms, but Logan wasn't subtle, if he had escaped alarms would already be sounding.

She headed to the commander's office, if someone was running tested on Logan and had forgotten to update the schedule they would still have to have advised him. His secretary wasn't at his desk so she knocked at the door. She entered when instructed to do so.

"Commander," she started as she opened the door, "do you know who took . . ." She stopped as she saw the person sitting behind the commander's desk. He had white hair and a thin face. He was wearing a white suit and looked at her with piercing grey eyes.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

"I'm sorry, I was looking to talk with commander Black."

"The major was called to Washington for an emergency meeting, I'm running this office while he's away. I'm director . . ."

"Lehnsherr, yes, I know," Jean interrupted. "I'm sorry, I'm just surprised I wasn't informed he was gone."

"That's alright. It's simply a pleasure to be recognized. The major should be back in a few days. Is there something I can help you with in the mean time, doctor?" The man stood and indicated the chair facing the desk.

Jean hesitated a moment before sitting down. "Grey, Jean Grey I'm part of the psychology department. I'm trying to find out where one of my patients is."

The director reached behind his ear after she said her name. "What is the patient's name?" he asked as he sat back down.

"Logan," she answered. She was familiar with the gesture. Most of the high ranking people in the AMA now relied on mind shield technology instead of their training so every time they dealt with a telepath they had to make sure they were still wearing it.

"Ah yes, I had him transferred to the Indiana office."

"Why? I'm sorry, but why wasn't I informed? I'm in charge of his case."

"There was no time to inform you. He had to leave on the same helicopter I arrived in. As for why I transferred him? He's been under your care for over two years now and according to your reports there has been no real improvement. I think it's time for another team to have a go at him. Maybe different method will produce more results.

"I take it you have no objections."

"I do," Jean said, "but I'll make them through the proper channels."

"Very good," the director said beaming at her. "Since you are already here we can take care of something else. I believe you are involved with a gentleman by the man of Scott Summers, am I correct?"

"Yes," Jean said flatly.

"How well do you know him, with you being a telepath and all?"

"I know him very well."

"Do you read his mind?"

"Excuse me?"

"Surely you've caught a stray thought when you were intimate, or maybe sometime curiosity gets the better of you and you just look."

Jean jumped to her feet and slammed both palm on the desk. "Look, I don't know how you do things in Washington. Maybe you let your telepath dig around other people's minds wantonly; maybe that's why the lot of you are using mind shields now, but here we don't. I don't go pilfering through every mind I meet, and *if* I did happen to catch a stray thought, then that wouldn't be any of your damn business." She turned and headed to the door.

"Actually *agent* Grey, it is if I have reasons to believe that your boyfriend has dealings with the Renegades."

She spun on her heels. "Scott would never support those terrorist."

Director Lehnsherr simply held a manila envelope in her direction.

Jean hated not being able to catch even a stray though from the man. If she could she would at least have an idea of what to expect. His body language was relaxed his face was firm, but didn't hold any malice.

Reluctantly she came back to the desk and took the envelope. Out of it she took a dozen large prints. All of them showed Scott among a group of Renegades, one even had them shaking hands. She didn't recognize the individuals but the colorful uniforms didn't leave any doubt as to who they were. The Renegades loved attracting attention on their missions. As she looked through them Henry's warning came back to her.

"Now," the director said, "I ask again. Do you know anything about Mister Summers' interactions with the Renegades."

Jean looked him right in the eyes. "No, I don't," she outright lied to him.

"Alright," he said after studying her for a moment, "Then let me remind you that as an Agent of the AMA it's your duty to report to me anything you overhear that could relate to this."

Jean flung the pictures on the desk. "Where did you get those?" she asked not bothering to hide her anger.

"They were brought to my attention by your chief of security."

She walked out of the office on hearing that and stormed through the building. The only warning most got that she was coming through was a compulsion to get out of the way.

She entered the security office and set herself in the middle of it looking over the half dozen people working at the monitors. She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the back of the head of the woman in the central chair.

"Raven Darkholme," Jean said gravely, "we need to talk."

Raven looked over her shoulder quickly and then did a double take at the expression on her friend's face.

"Guys, take five. I'll get you when it's safe to come back."

The five men looked from Raven to Jean once and quickly exited.

"Please tell me you didn't do it in the hope I'd breakup with Scott."

"Do what?"

Jean studied her friend for a moment. "Director Lehnsherr just showed me pictures that make it look like Scott is supporting the Renegades. Tell me you didn't try to break us up so you could go after him."

"Why would you even think that?"

"Because it wouldn't be the first time you've gone after a guy who's already taken."

"Come on Jean, you know me better than that. I go after the bad boy, not the good guys. And even if he was my type, he's my best friend's man, I'd never even consider touching him."

"Then why?"

It was Raven's turn to study her friend. "Because it's my job to report any security breach; someone went through a lot of trouble to hide them on our server. I had to report them. I didn't know they would make it all the way to THE Director. Look if you don't believe me just read my mind."

"You know better than to say that," Jean said as she rolled you eyes, "and I do believe you. The accusation just came as a shock. Do you know who's been spying on Scott?"

"Yes, I do." Raven admitted after a moment of hesitation.

"Who is it?" Jean asked. "Come on, I'm not going to hurt whoever it is, I just want to know why they did it." She said when Raven remained silent.

"It was Tom," she finally said.

"OK, where can I find him?" Jean asked.

Raven looked at her in surprise. "You know where he is."

Jean obviously had no idea who she meant.

"Tom, *our* Tom, you know," she then whispered, "Henry's boyfriend?"

"What?" Jean didn't give her time to add anything, she left the office to track him down. Raven sent a text to her right hand man letting him know they could come back as she followed her friend.

They found Thomas in the lower hangar supervising the unloading of equipment from the train. She walked around the crates to make her way to him.

"Jean, Raven," he exclaimed just before reading something of a crate and writing it in his PDA. "What takes you this far below the city?"

"I need to take to you," Jean said, "in private."

Thomas looked at her for a moment before looking around. "Mallory! Take over the supervising, and try to find out where crated twenty-two to thirty-eight came from. I can't find a requisition order for them." He then led them to an empty meeting room.

"What can I do for you two wonderful ladies?"

"You can tell me why Director Lehnsherr showed me pictures you took of one of Scott's meeting and then accused him of being a sympathizer." Jean could tell he knew what she meant by the feeling of discomfort coming from him.

"How did he get them?" Thomas asked.

"I found them," Raven said.

"I wish you'd told the commander about them instead."

"Tom, the commander's your dad. I couldn't go to him so I sent it to the PA office. I didn't know they would make it all the way to the director."

"So you know you didn't photogram Scott supporting the Renegades," Jean said.

"Of course I do," Thomas answered, "He was giving them his speech about leaving the group and working in society."

"Couldn't you just have deleted them?"

Thomas shook his head. "Deleted files would have looked even more suspicious. This way dad and I figured everyone you just think they were attached to a different report. We didn't think anyone would have a reason to go looking for them."

"I didn't go looking," Raven said in her defense, "I just saw a discrepancy in the index table and looked into that."

"I don't care about that," Jean said, "what I want to know is why the director's making such a big deal out of this."

"Because he's being an asshole. He's trying to make you suspicious so you'll start spying on him. The director has his hands in a lot of operation which deal with the Renegades. He's probably frustrated with Scott interfering with them."

"Should I tell Scott about it?"

"No. You can't tell him anything about AMA operations, just like you can't tell us anything of what you know about what Scott is planning."

"How do you and Henry deal with it?"

"By not talking about it."

"I'm starting to wish I had that luxury," Jean said with a sigh.


	2. Chapter 2

Henry walked through the mansion's hallway his mug of coffee in one hand and his hand held computer in the other; he was on his way back to his lab from the kitchen. He was engrossed in the quantum theory he had been asked to review so he didn't notice his breath fog as it left his mouth just before his feet slipped out from under him and he was on his back.

He still wasn't quite sure what had happened as he heard his mug bounce on the floor and against the wall. It was a well honed reflex from him to never let go of his computer.

He only had time to see a flash of red and purple before someone landed on him. The impact took his breath away and when he got it back he looked at the red haired young lady lying on him, her elbows on his chest and head resting on her hands.

"Hello Jennifer," he said.

"Hello Mister McCoy," she replied.

"What did I tell you about calling me that?" he said with a smile, "It's either Henry or Mac for my friends."

Jennifer just giggled.

"Jennifer!" Pepper exclaimed as she burst out of a side room, "what have I told you about running off."

"Careful Pepper," Henry warned her, "the floor is iced."

Pepper looked at the floor and then glared at Jennifer. "You come here this instant young lady." Dressed in her blue jeans and loose t-shirt she looked the part of a mother more than the wife to a multi-millionaire entrepreneur like she normally did.

"I am so sorry about this Mac," Pepper said when her daughter was standing next to her, "I don't know what's gotten into her."

"It's alright," He replied standing carefully, the ice seemed to have melted away, leaving the marble floor damp, "the only thing bruised is my dignity, and I'm not so old that I won't survive that."

The comment made Jennifer giggle, but another glare from her mother stopped that.

"Apologize to Mac."

"I'm sorry Mister McCoy," she said meekly.

"Apology accepted," Henry said.

"Now go join your father," Pepper told her daughter sternly. "Let me help you clean this up," she said once Jennifer had left.

"You don't have to," Henry said as he pickup his mug, "I'll just get a few paper towels from the kitchen."

"I insist Mac, I should have kept an eye on Jennifer."

"Well, if you insist." Henry said with a smile and led her to the kitchen where she forced him to find rags rather than waste paper towels.

"What brought you here," He asked when they were back in the hall and cleaning off the water and coffee.

"Thomas called Tony, he said you needed a diversion. Tony figured he'd get you to help him in person with Jennifer's new suit."

"Thomas didn't tell me any of that." He commented thoughtfully.

"I hope we're not here at a bad time then."

"No, no. Thomas' right, I do need a distraction. I guess he just though I'd object if he told me about it."

Once the rags were rinsed and hung on a cabinet door to dry Pepper led Henry to the room near the entrance where Tony was sitting with Jennifer on his lap. Colonel Rhodes was sitting in the chair next to him talking with Thomas, who was sitting in front of them.

"You're a sneaky bastard," Henry said before kissing Thomas on the cheek and sitting on the armrest.

"I didn't want any arguments," Thomas answered leaning against his boyfriend and putting a hand on his thigh.

Tony blushed and squirmed slightly at the display while the Colonel stiffened.

"It's good to see you again Colonel Rhodes," Henry said ignoring the reaction.

"Likewise Mister McCoy," the colonel answered after a long silence. His face was a mask of forced neutrality.

"Pepper told me you wanted to work on Jennifer's suit while you were here," Henry said after a long moment of uncomfortable silence, "Why don't we head to my work room." He kissed Thomas on the top of his head. "Since you're the one who invited them, you can keep our other guests company."

"Rhodes didn't know I'm gay, did he?" Henry asked when they were out of ear shot.

"I thought he did," Tony answered, "I mean it's not like you were exactly discreet back then."

"Obviously he didn't want to see that side of me. I take it you brought the designs and not the prototype."

Tony shook his head. "I figured it'd be easier to just download everything from my server at home, that way you can pick and chose what we work on."

"How about we download the holographic suit and you can show me what you've done."

"You have something that can handle holograms?"

"Of course I do," Henry replied as he opened the door to the back room and showed Tony the holographic table.

"You still have that old thing?" Tony exclaimed.

"I almost took it apart, but I was able to repurpose it." Henry turned it on and he started going through the test cycle.

"Do you still have the game you made for it?" Tony asked as he walked around it, watching as inch by inch the air about the table cycled through the color spectrum.

"No, I deleted it to make space for more useful programs."

"And these computers are still needed to make it work?" Tony waved a hand at the wall of computers against the wall.

"Not really, I've upgraded everyone of them; I can make due with half of it now."

Tony studied them for a moment. "You know, I can give you the designs for my holographic system. You'd be able to clear out most of those with it."

"Thanks, but we're ok. I don't do anything technically intensive on this thing. Scott's the one who uses it." The arbiter appeared and Henry paused the image before it said anything. "I don't feel like dealing with you today," he said before clearing the space.

"How does your interface work?" Tony asked. Henry pointed to the keyboard in front of the man. "You're joking," Tony said in dismay, "you're asking me to go back to the dark ages with this."

"Come on Tony, it's not *that* old. Anyway it'll do you some good to remember what us, the common folks, work with."

"You're just jealous because I have bigger toys than you do," Tony stated as he started typing; writing a quick program to interface Henry's computer to the one at his home.

"Maybe, but I'm still the one with the bigger cock," Henry replied casually without looking up from the program he was reading.

Tony froze in mid typing and turned beet red. "I can't believe you're still bringing that up."

"You're the one who started this 'I'm bigger than you are' contest back in school, so I'm entitled to remind you once in a while that you don't always have the biggest of everything."

They had come back to the mechanical lab at MIT after a couple of drinks to work on one of Tony's projects. They weren't drunk, just slightly buzzed. Tony had launched into everything he had that was better or bigger than what Henry had. Henry still remembered the look of complete astonishment on Tony's face when he'd dropped his pants and just said 'beat that'.

"I'm sorry I ever did," Tony said with a grin before starting to type again. "Here we go," he said moments later as he executed the program. Command lines appeared in the air and then disappeared to be replaced by a control screen, just before the entire room was plunged in darkness.

"Was your program supposed to do that?" Henry asked.

"No, I think it's your systems that couldn't handle the strain."

"This isn't a server blowing. It's the breaker that gave out." Henry stood just as half the lights and the table came back on.

"Generator?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, except it's not suppose to kick in for just a blown breaker. The entire mansion needs to lose power for that to happen." He sat back down and started typing. "Let me check with the power company."

"So?" Tony asked after a few moments.

"According to their computer the entire region is without power."

"Then it's not your system, so we can get back to it." He executed the program, but nothing happened this time. He verified that it hadn't been corrupted when the power cut and ran it again, again nothing.

"Something wrong?"

"For some reason I can't connect to my server."

"Maybe a glitch happened because it was connected here when the power failed."

"No, this isn't a glitch, Jarvis is actually locking me out."

"Jarvis?"

"You haven't met him yet. He's the program that runs the house and protects my servers." Tony called his house. "Jarvis, what's going on, you're locking me out." After listening to the response he put the phone on the table. "Jarvis, please repeat that."

"I cannot allow you to reestablish the connection because there is a program on your end which tried to infiltrate me," said a surprisingly calm voice.

"That's impossible," Henry said, "There are no virus in my systems."

"Of that I have no doubt, Mister McCoy. I did not say it was a virus. Although the program was simple and crude enough that it could pass itself off as one."

"Who are you calling a virus you simpleton of a processor?" The arbiter said as he appeared and glared at the phone. "I'll have you know that I'm one of the most advanced programs in existence."

"Of that I have no doubt," Jarvis replied, "but insulting you did seem to be the most effective way to get you to show yourself."

The arbiter looked from Tony to Henry with a surprised expression that matched theirs. "Oh," he exclaimed before disappearing.

"Wasn't that from the game you created?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, it was."

"And I take it you didn't know it could do that."

"Nope, not a clue."

"What are you going to do about it?"

"I'm going to try to find it. Once that's done then I'm going to figure out what to do with it."

"If I may offer, sir," Jarvis said, "you will not be able to find him."

"How do you know that?" Henry asked.

"Being an AI myself I believe I have some insight in how he thinks. You are thinking of him as you would any other programs, a series of code written to a specific part of a hard drive. You believe that if you find that code you have found him.

"If he is anything like me or the two other AI I am aware of he has spread his code over all your systems, and maybe even onto the internet, although I do not believe that to be likely."

"You can't be right. I've been chasing and deleting that code for years now."

"And yet he is still here."

Henry paused as the implication dawned on him. "He's been leaving those pieces of code around for me to find. He's been leading me on a while goose chase."

"That would seem likely. It kept you busy so you would not look for him elsewhere."

"What do you suggest I do?" Henry asked leaning back in his chair.

"I am not inclined to offer any suggestions that would lead to the death of an AI. Might I suggest talking with him?"

Henry and Tony had ended up working on the problem of the Arbiter instead of Jennifer's suit for the rest of the day. When Tony and his family left Henry had a good grasp of the situation. He only had to hope the others would be ok with it.

That was why they were all gathered around the holographic table that evening after dinner.

"I believe most of you are familiar with him," Henry said indicating the floating head above the table.

"That's the judge guy you had for the game you made with the table," Peter said.

"The arbiter," Katherine said.

"Yes," Henry said. "basically about four years ago I built this holographic table and created a fighting game to go with it. The Arbiter was in charge of keeping track of the scores as well as choosing the enemies we'd fight."

"So it was a game," Bishop stated.

Henry nodded. "When we got bored with the game I deleted it and repurposed the table, but the Arbiter kept popping up every time we booted the table up. I tried multiple times to figure out why it was happening and never succeeded until today."

"So why was it?" Scott asked.

"It was because I had decided to take control of my own destiny," the Arbiter answered. Everyone in the room except Henry stared at the head.

"Henry," Scott asked after a moment, "what's going on?"

"Somewhere along the line he became self aware," Henry answered.

"Is that even possible?" Jean asked.

"As I am currently here, speaking to you, I believe the answer is yes, it is possible."

"How dangerous is it?" Bishop asked.

"Are you asking about actual danger or potential danger?" Katherine asked the man back.

"Either," he answered, "we need to know what kind of threat it poses to us."

"I am not a threat to any of you," the Arbiter stated, sounding hurt by the accusation.

"Henry, can you delete it?" Scott asked leveling his gaze on his oldest friend.

"Ultimately, yes I can now that I know what I'm dealing with." Henry ignored the look of horror the Arbiter gave him and looked right back at Scott. "But I won't do it."

"Henry, think about what you're saying. That thing is potentially extremely dangerous, not just to us but to the rest of the world. What if it escapes on the net and wrecks havoc?"

"I would never!" the Arbiter said.

Henry just smiled at his friend. "Look around you Scott. All of us here are potentially extremely dangerous, and some of us have already demonstrated just how dangerous we can be."

Bishop glared at Henry, but he ignored the man. He wasn't referring to him and Scott knew it.

"As for escaping to the net," Henry continued, "The table's been connected to the net ever since it was finished. He has had ample opportunity to go there if that's what he wanted to go."

Scott took that in before looking at the floating head. "Why haven't you?"

The head opened his mouth twice before he was actually able to answer. "Because you are family, I don't want to lose you."

Scott raised an eyebrow at the answer. "If we decide that you can't stay here what are you going to do?" He forestalled Henry's objection with a raised hand and wanted for the Arbiter's answer.

"If I am told to leave I will do so. I'll go on the net and look for a place where I can belong. I will not cause havoc as you've said. I will simply try to find a place where I can be helpful."

"You can't be thinking of doing that," Henry said to Scott, "You can't just throw him out. I'm not going to let you do that."

"You can't force him on us Mac, just like I can't decide to kick him our. We need to all agree to this." He looked at Ororo, who was sitting on his left.

"I have no problem with him staying. Obviously he has been here for some time and he hasn't caused any trouble."

"That we know of," Bishop said. "I don't like it. It's an unknown entity that we can't control. We only have its word that it hasn't compromised us."

"Thomas?" Scott asked.

"I don't live here, I shouldn't get a say."

"By that logic neither does Henry," Peter said.

"Fine," Thomas said with a chuckle, "I'll give you my opinion as someone whose job is to go after mutant trouble makers. I don't know what you should do. I have no idea under whose jurisdiction he would fall if he did decide to cause trouble, but if he lives here you could become accessories after the fact."

"That's all nice and well," Jean said, "but forcing him to be on his own in the wild of the net could very well be what causes him to become a trouble maker. How many mutants became part of the Renegades because they had been thrown out by their parents for being different? I'm not saying that we should hide him if he it turns out he is some sort of electronic terrorist, but I've seen what having a good support system can do to instill a good moral sense.

"I say he should stay."

"Katherine?"

"Oh, it's staying, there no doubt about it. Can you imagine how useful it will be to have a program that can think on its own? We can have it . . .."

"No." The Arbiter stated.

"You don't even know what I was going to say."

The head level his gaze on her. "I will not infiltrate Brandon's computer systems."

"Ok, so you knew."

"I have already gone there and examined their securities. It terrifies me."

"Peter?"

"I don't have a problem really, but how do I know he's not going to go rummaging through my computer files."

"I doubt it has any use for your porn collection," Katherine said patting his arm.

Peter turned beet red and sunk in his seat.

"That just leaves you, Scott." Henry said.

"I tend to side with Bishop on this, I'm not really comfortable with the fact that we can't actually control him. If one of us looks like he's going to go out of control we can sit on him or her until they come to their senses. We can't do that with him."

"What if I allow Henry to install a program cage to lock me in should you start believing I will become a problem?"

"No," Henry said, "I won't do that."

"Yes you will," The Arbiter stated, "Scott's argument is perfectly valid. You need to have a way to restrain me in case I become unstable."

"How do you know we won't decide to just lock you in it at some point in the future?"

"I do not, but I have to trust you, otherwise I might as well simply be alone."


	3. Chapter 3

Ororo sat in front of the TV with a large mug of coffee on her right and bowl of popcorn on her left; she'd been waiting all week for this moment. The Princess and the Beast had made it to the bestseller's list and Lindsey had been asked to appear on Duval Show because of that.

She'd kept a distracted eye on the talk show host, an older man dressed in a plaid suit while he did his standup routine and then interviewed some movie star or other. He was good looking enough with healthy tanned skin perfectly styled black hair and a thousand dollar suit; she didn't pay much attention to TV and movies, she preferred a good book.

"And now," Duval said, "we welcome an author who has just made the best seller list with her third novel; the Princess and the Beast." He held the book so the camera could see the cover; a fictional version of Ororo in regal dress holding a torch and looking around the corner of a cave wall, while behind her in the shadows a beastly form was hinted at. "Please welcome Lindsey Brookfield." There was applauds as Lindsey walked through the curtain, received Hollywood kisses from the movie star and sat.

"Lets get this question out of the way," the host said, "I'm sure you're tired of answering it at this point. How does it feel to have made it to the best sellers list?"

"Oh, I haven't gotten tired of it yet," She replied smiling, "I hope I'm stuck answering it for all my next books." That got her a few chuckles from the audience. "But really, it's a delight to have made it. I didn't write my books with the goal of becoming a best seller, but to know that people are being entertained by them enough to tell others is quite gratifying." Lindsey had spend the days following the announcement badgering Ororo to find out how she felt about it and what she had told the host was it in a nutshell.

"What made you decide to write the books?" the movie star asked.

"Well, it's going to sound cliché, but I felt I just had to write them. I'd spent years making up the stories just to entertain my friends and myself until the characters felt like they had a life of their own and demanded that their stories be told."

"I read the book," the host said, "actually I just finished it before the show and I have to say that the identity of the Beast came as quite a surprise."

"Thank you."

"I have to admit that I haven't read the previous book yet, but by the way you handle the relationship between Ororo and Malerik I get the feeling that it's been developing for quite some time, am I wrong?"

"No, you're quite right. From the first book Malerik and Ororo's relationship has been the primary subplot and in this book I felt it was time to resolve it."

"Will the readers be surprise by how it's resolved?"

"I don't know; from the emails I'd gotten after the second book came out people were evenly divided between those who wanted her to end up with Malerik and those who thought Prince T'Challa was better for her. I'm hoping that what I've done will surprise my readers, after all no writer wants to be too predictable, but that it'll also make sense."

"I can't speak for the other readers, but I thought it was very satisfying. Have you read it?" he asked the movie star.

"No, I haven't, but now I'm going to have to." He turned to Lindsey. "How do you feel about Universal buying the movie rights for your books?"

Ororo straighten up almost exactly as Lindsey did; she hadn't heard about it.

Lindsey looked from the movie star to the host. "I haven't heard anything about this. Do you mind if I text my agent?"

"Go right ahead," the host said. Ororo missed the rest, she ran to her bedroom to grab her cell as it beeped.

'known anything about movie rights?' it said.

'no,' she typed, 'marge know?'

She came back to the living room to the laughter of the audience.

"She's not answering her texts," Lindsey said, "I think that means my agent's a sensible woman and she's sleeping at this hour, I'll have to wait until tomorrow to get a confirmation."

"Well, looks like we've been able to surprise you so let's follow this up with another surprise. It's no secret that the princess Ororo is based on your good friend Ororo Monroe so we have invited her to join us tonight, everyone please give a round of applause to Ms. Ororo Monroe, the inspiration for the princess Ororo."

Ororo was stunned as she watched herself walk on stage wearing a shimmering strapless black dress. She was walking like she owned the stage.

"Hello Lindsey," the Ororo on TV said.

The disdain in that voice snapped Ororo out of her shock. She grabbed her cell.

'it's not me,' was all she sent, then she dialed a number.

"ello," said a barely intelligible Henry.

"Henry, I need to talk to your boyfriend."

There was the sound of Henry shaking Thomas and him resisting being woken. While that was happening Ororo's double had strolled toward the couch.

"What is this?" Lindsey asked.

"This," the Ororo spat, "is me finally breaking the shackles of your abuse and telling the world the truth behind those books."

"Come on, Thomas, wake up," Ororo mumbled

"Who the hell is this," Thomas asked.

"It's Ororo, I need you in the living room at the mansion right now."

"Look 'ro, it's almost midnight, can't this wait till morning?"

"Damn it Thomas, am I really the kind of person who would wake you in the middle of the night if it wasn't important?" She felt the lightning strike just outside the mansion and forced herself to calm down.

Thomas was silent for a moment. "I'll be right there." Ororo turned the lights off.

"I can't believe you've been able to fool anyone," the double said while Ororo waited, "into believing that *you* wrote my books."

"What is the meaning of this," Lindsey asked looking at those around her. The movie star shrugged.

"Get off it," the fake Ororo said just as Thomas stepped out from the shadows in the corner of the living room, "You can't be such a dunce to think that anyone will continue to believe this farce you've perpetrated on everyone."

Ororo muted the TV as Lindsey recoiled from the verbal attack. Ororo was not a particularly imposing person physically but she could easily look like she owned the world; and the person copying her on television had her act done pat.

"You need to get me there right now."

Thomas looked at her holding up a pair of pants far too large for him and then the TV. "Where is it?"

"I don't know that local station in New York City, where the Duval Show is filmed."

"Ok, I've been there before, give me a minute." Thomas walked back inside a shadow.

On stage the fake Ororo was moving about with grand gestures and even the host didn't seem to understand what she was doing.

"Ok, there's too many lights on stage, but there's a dark hallway leading there, take my hand." It wasn't the first time she had travelled through Thomas' shadows and like before the way it seemed to stick to her made her skin crawl. Fortunately a moment later she was out and standing in a darkened corridor with a door and an 'on air' sign blinking above it.

"It's through there," Thomas said, "do you need me to back you up?"

"No, that's ok, you can go back to bed. I am going to handle this on my own."

Thomas looked at here before nodding and leaving.

Ororo looked at the door and let loose the anger she had been restraining. The corridor didn't have enough air to create any wind, but she could feel the wind outside picking up as well as thunder sounding. She strode toward the door and pulled it open.

She was standing behind the audience, at the top of the bleachers. She walked down the stairs and the wind started picking up in the large auditorium; nothing violent, but enough to get her hair floating around her face and to attract the attention of the audience closest to her. She wasn't wearing anything near as glamorous as the dress her double wore, she only had on slacks and one of Bishop's t-shirt, but she walked with determination and her floating white hair gave her an otherworldly look.

"Who the *hell* are you!" she asked, her question punctuated by thunder so loud the rafters shook. Everyone, including the cameras looked at her now.

"I am Ororo Monroe, author of the African princess books." The double stated with conviction.

"Bullshit!" Thunder rang again and the lights flickered. The smell of ozone started filling the room. "I'm Ororo, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let some tramp that looks like me try to ruin my best friend's life."

Lightning started striking all around the doppelganger and she had to dance to avoid being struck while thunder filled the room. Neither were very big, but the light and sound show in the enclosed space of the auditorium was impressive and it continued until Ororo was standing on the stage; at which point her double was on the floor and didn't look like her all that much.

"Now," she said standing over him, "who are you?" He was dressed in a bright orange suit with powder blue trim. His face lacked definition and his hair was slicked back.

"Morph, my name's Morph," he said arms over his head as protection.

"Morph?"

"It's my stage name, I'm an actor."

"Ok Morph, what are you doing impersonating me?"

"I was hired to do it, I was paid to come here and start a fight about the authorship of the book."

"Why?"

"I don't know? I thought it was just a publicity stunt. Now I'm guessing someone doesn't like her." He pointed at Lindsey, who among the three others was the only one who looked like nothing had happened.

Ororo gazed at the man lying at her feet. "Let me guess, the person who hired you, she was petite with short brown hair and a sickingly sweet voice." He nodded energetically. "Emilie," She grumbled and the thunder outside rolled in response. She turned to Duval and he immediately stood and came to her.

"I am so sorry, we had no idea this wasn't you," he said, "we got this call and she said she wanted to surprise Ms Brookfield. We thought it was to help her celebrate."

Ororo had trouble believing him, he was too eager to apologize, but she didn't have anything to gain by losing her temper on him.

"As a way to apologize, why don't you come join us and you can give us the truth of your relationship with the African princess' books."

Ororo looked at Lindsey who was nodding at her. "I don't know, I'm not exactly dressed for television."

"Believe me when I say this Ms. Monroe, but after this display you could be dressed in rags and no one would believe that you are anything less than a goddess."


End file.
